Sunday, April 21, 2013

Race Day - Upon entering the racetrack, there were the umbrella girls. Guys were lining up to get their picture taken with them but none of my group would do that. So... for my friends at coffee, you get to see JUST the eye candy.
On display on raceday was Jesse James' personal bike. A pretty nice bike, decorated with pictures of his dog and bullets with his name on them... did Sandy send those?? ;)
I watched some of the warmups from the hill near turn 19. I've included a few pictures of riders taking the final turn, 20.
On the way back towards my actual seat, I watched some more of the stunt riders' show. There was also a stunt pilot flying overhead.
Before any of the races started, they highlighted the MotoGP premier class riders by driving them around the track for everyone to see. They also broadcast pictures on the big screens of pictures taken from a couple of circling helicopters.
I've included a picture (from behind) of the guys to give everyone an idea on just how good our seats actually were.
So here's how the day went... in the Moto3 class, #42 Alex Rins of Spain won on a KTM, #25 Maverick Vinales of Spain came in second on a KTM, and #3 Luis Salom also from Spain came in third on yet another KTM.
In Moto2, #18 Nicolas Terol of Spain riding for the Mapfre Aspar Team won. #80 Esteve Rabat also of Spain from Tuenti HP 40 was second. Third was #36 Mika Kallio of Finland and the Marc VDS Racing Team.
Finally, in the "big" race, the Hondas ran away with it. Marc Marquez (#93) of Repsol Honda overtook his teammate, Dani Pedrosa (#26) in the final laps to win, Pedrosa taking second. Yamaha Factory Racing scored a podium finish with Jorge Lorenzo (#99) taking third. All three riders are from Spain.
So.... the only non-Spanish rider to get on the podium was Kallio in Moto2. Not surprising how dominant Spanish riders are when you see what a big deal motorcycle racing is in Spain. Been there, seen that.
After the races, I said goodbye to the people I'd chatted with from (would you believe) Canada, Sarnia to be exact. They took a nice picture of me with my new MotoGP Stetson on. I was feeling a little green at that point... :)
On our way out for the last time, all you could see were cars, cars, cars and bikes, bikes, bikes. We were lucky to be able to exit fairly quickly. Ed and I went to a Western store, him to look for a jacket and me to look perhaps for a birthday gift for my sister.